Motivational speakers will tell you that you have the power to be what you want to be and the power to make a difference and change the world. Well, this may be true, but I am not going to use such motivational rhetoric to blow smoke at you. Besides, if it were true that you are what you think about, most 17-year-old boys would turn into a can of beer or a 17-year-old girl. Such motivational thoughts can be great to get us out of a funk, but rarely do they have any real impact on our success.

"You and only you can make a difference."

"If you are not growing, you are dying."